Militant
\ngroup Hamas released two more Israeli women hostages on Thursday with more
\nPalestinian prisoners to be freed under an extended truce that has paused weeks
\nof deadly conflict.<\/p>\n
With the current truce set to expire early Friday, international bodies
\nhave called for a lasting halt to the violence, sparked by deadly Hamas attacks
\non Israel that prompted it to mount a devastating assault on the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n
The delicate truce held through its seventh day after a 24-hour extension
\ndespite a shooting claimed by Hamas militants that killed three people in
\nJerusalem.<\/p>\n
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met with Israeli and Palestinian
\nleaders to seek a longer pause that would allow further prisoner-hostage
\nexchanges and more aid for displaced civilians in Gaza.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military said on Thursday at least two women hostages had been
\nreturned from Gaza after being released to the Red Cross by Hamas.<\/p>\n
More were expected to be transferred “in the next few hours”, it said.<\/p>\n
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office named the two as
\nFrench-Israeli dual national Mia Shem, 21, and Amit Soussana, 40.<\/p>\n
Israel is due to release more Palestinian prisoners in turn, after the
\nsides agreed to extend the pause in combat operations until Friday morning.<\/p>\n
Only hours after the truce extension, the Islamist militants claimed
\nresponsibility for a shooting in Jerusalem that killed three people and called
\nfor an “escalation of the resistance”.<\/p>\n
The morning attack saw two gunmen from annexed east Jerusalem kill three
\npeople and wound eight others at a bus stop in the western part of the city,
\nbefore two off-duty soldiers and civilians fired at them and “neutralised”
\nthem, police said.<\/p>\n
– Ten hostages per day –<\/p>\n
Separately, two Israeli soldiers were slightly injured in a ramming attack
\non a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, the army said, adding
\nthe assailant had also been “shot and neutralised”.<\/p>\n
International bodies have called for more time to allow medical supplies,
\nfood and fuel into the besieged Gaza Strip after fierce combat and bombardments
\nsparked by Hamas’s bloody October 7 attacks on Israel.
\n“We have seen over the last week the very positive development of hostages
\ncoming home, being reunited with their families,” Blinken said at a meeting
\nwith Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n
“It’s also enabled an increase in humanitarian assistance to go to innocent
\ncivilians in Gaza who need it desperately. So this process is producing
\nresults. It’s important, and we hope that it can continue.”<\/p>\n
Blinken later told Netanyahu it was “imperative” to protect civilians in
\nsouthern Gaza “before any military operations there”.<\/p>\n
The latest extended truce had been due to end at 0500 GMT Thursday, but the
\nIsraeli army said the “operational pause” would continue as international
\nmediators negotiate the release of hostages held by Hamas.<\/p>\n
Qatar, which has led the truce negotiations supported by Egypt and the
\nUnited States, confirmed the pause had been extended for one day “under the
\nsame previous conditions”.<\/p>\n
Fighting began on October 7 when Hamas militants broke through Gaza’s
\nmilitarised border into Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and
\nkidnapping about 240, according to Israeli authorities.<\/p>\n
In response, Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas and unleashed an air and
\nground military campaign that the Hamas government says has killed more than
\n15,000 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians.<\/p>\n
The truce agreement allows for extensions if Hamas can continue to release
\n10 hostages per day, but both sides have warned they are ready to return to
\nfighting.<\/p>\n
Since the truce began on November 24, 70 Israeli hostages have been freed
\nin return for 210 Palestinian prisoners.<\/p>\n
At least 24 foreigners, most of them Thais living in Israel, have been
\nfreed outside the terms of the deal.<\/p>\n
Israel says it sees the truce as a temporary halt intended to free
\nhostages, but there are growing calls for a more sustained pause in fighting.<\/p>\n
The hostage releases have brought joy tinged with agony, with families
\nanxiously waiting each night to learn if their loved ones will be freed, and
\nlearning harrowing details from those who return.<\/p>\n
Four-year-old Abigail was captured after crawling out from under the body
\nof her father, killed by militants, covered in his blood, her great aunt Liz
\nHirsh Naftali said.<\/p>\n
Before the truce Israeli ground and air forces had pounded Gaza, forcing an
\nestimated 1.7 million people — around 80 percent of the Hamas-run territory’s
\npopulation — to leave their homes and limiting the entry of food, water,
\nmedicine and fuel.<\/p>\n
– ‘Everything is gone’ –<\/p>\n
Conditions in Gaza remain “catastrophic” and the population faces a “high
\nrisk of famine”, according to the World Food Programme.<\/p>\n
The truce has allowed some of the displaced to return to their homes, but
\nfor many there is little left.<\/p>\n
“I discovered that my house had been completely destroyed — 27 years of my
\nlife to build it and everything is gone,” said Taghrid al-Najjar, 46, after
\nreturning to her home in southeastern Gaza.<\/p>\n
The violence in Gaza has also raised tensions in the West Bank, where
\nnearly 240 Palestinians have been killed by either Israeli soldiers or settlers
\nsince October 7, according to the Palestinian health ministry.<\/p>\n
That figure exceeds the entire toll in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for
\nall of last year when 235 people died, mostly Palestinians, an AFP tally showed.<\/p>\n
In a sign of mounting international tensions over the conflict, Israel’s
\nForeign Minister Eli Cohen said he was recalling the country’s envoy in Madrid
\nover what he called “outrageous remarks” by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro
\nSanchez.<\/p>\n
Sanchez had said in a television interview he had “serious doubts” over the
\nlegality of Israel’s actions in Gaza.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Militant group Hamas released two more Israeli women hostages on Thursday with more Palestinian prisoners to be freed under an extended truce that has paused weeks of deadly conflict. With the current truce set to expire early Friday, international bodies have called for a lasting halt to the violence, sparked by deadly Hamas attacks on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8630"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8630"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8632,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8630\/revisions\/8632"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonotarsomoy.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}